Timaru councillors to explore plan B for theatre project

Thursday, 30 May 2024

Timaru District councillors have agreed to explore a plan B for the Theatre Royal and Heritage Hub project, and the council’s chief executive has been tasked with seeking out new options.

The decision was made during deliberations following submission hearings to the council’s draft Long term-Plan (LTP) on Wednesday.

That decision came a day after the South Canterbury Chamber of Commerce issued a challenge to the council, urging it to put a last-minute halt on the project to allow for a new, cheaper option to be explored.

Chamber board member Scott McAuley told the hearing that if the council was genuine about looking at a greenfields build, he was confident of being able to rally the business community to put forward a proposal.

The council has budgeted $57.1 million for the project, but McAuley suggested being able to do it for about a third of that.

Wednesday was a long day for councillors as they considered the various requests of community members raised via submissions.

Submissions heard on Monday and Tuesday covered a range of topics.

During deliberations, manager of property services and client representative Nicole Timney gave an update on the theatre project, which councillors sent to the market in March after accepting the estimated costs sight unseen.

A fixed price was expected in the first week of July, Timney said.

“It got through the last hurdle of resource consent,” she said. “A building consent is in with council in regards to the tranche of works.”

She said a complete greenfields site had never been looked at by the council. “I don’t know where that greenfields site is, but I take direction from you all.”

She cautioned against extending the project further but said she was “not here to persuade you or dissuade you”.

Mayor Nigel Bowen said the council needed to keep to the time line as much as possible.

“If we come to July and the decision is no [to go with the present project], we need to have something in our back pocket,” he said.

He was comfortable for the chief executive to work with officers on an alternative option.

Councillor Michelle Pye said, “I think we owe it to our community to look at another option,” adding that she was surprised a greenfields option had not been explored earlier.

“I think we need to start that process now and sprint,” she said.

Councillor Allan Booth said he was “very keen for a broader” conversation about the project.

Council chief executive Nigel Trainor said a “plan B” needed to be organised at pace so that it would be “sitting there ready when you’re sitting”.

Councillors also discussed a proposal to retain gym facilities at the Southern Trust Events Centre.

The council received 266 submissions or comments specifically tagged to plans and projects related to recreation and leisure activities, and an additional 132 letters in support of the gym at the Southern Trust Events Centre.

A large group of gym supporters sat through the hearings on Monday.

Councillor Stacey Scott said: “I think we heard loud and clear from our awesome group that were here on Monday.”

The group’s calls to retain the gym would be considered in planning “going forward”, she said.

“I hope they felt reassured that we were listening.”

A call for additional toilets and upgrades to toilets across the district was also raised during deliberations.

That included requests to install additional toilets in Temuka’s CBD, and at Caroline Bay near the Piazza and CPlay, as well as other locations across the district.

Bowen suggested a toilet review across the district could be done.

However, Timney said toilets were not high among the council’s priorities, and about $100,000 was available.

She said it would be a waiting game for the next three years before more money would be available for toilet upgrades.

Community feedback on the draft Long-term Plan was sought from April 12 to May 12, during which time 503 valid formal submissions were made.

Eleven additional submissions were considered invalid because of a lack of, at a minimum, a legible name and at least one method of contacting the individual.

Of the valid submissions, 143 were specifically tagged to plans, projects and functions related to the Theatre Royal and Heritage Hub project.

A breakdown of the 143 submissions showed 30 wanted the project to continue as planned, with the heritage facility.

Eight wanted it to continue without the heritage facility while 22 wanted it continued but at a lower cost, 17 wanted to demolish the existing buildings and build new, 16 wanted to defer the project for now, and 39 wanted the project abandoned.